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for another person or group that is accompanied by an attitude of holding oneself
above others and seeing others as worthless. The opposite is dignity: seeing the
inherent worth in everyone. An attitude of dignity counters polarization, promotes
listening, and replaces hostility with caring.
A school that allows contempt to flourish is the kind of school where
students (and staff) experience fear when they should be focused on learning and
on supporting one another. What’s needed is a tool that can help schools move
away from contempt and toward dignity by shining the healing light of
conversation.
The Dignity Index
The Dignity Index is a new measure created by UNITE in 2021 to help us
better understand how we treat each other during disagreements. On this measure
(ranging from 1 to 8), lower scores (1 and 2) indicate contempt and division, and
higher scores (7 and 8) are indicative of someone who sees dignity in others,
respects differences, and works together with others. Although this measure has
not yet been brought to many schools, some have started.
Salt Lake City schools are using the Dignity Index in their classrooms. Here
is an adapta tion of what they have done:
8 – Dignity: I treat everyone with dignity. I believe everyone is born with
inherent value. Everyone is important and deserves to be treated with kindness and
respect no matter who they are.
7 – Conn ectedness: I fully engage with others. I listen and talk with people
who have different ideas, even if I don’t agree with them. I’m open to admitting
mistakes I’ve made, and I am open to changing my opinion.
6 – Curiosity: I make an effort to talk to a variety of other people, even if I
don’t agree with them on everything. I focus on our shared interests and common
values.
5 – Respect: I recognize that others have a right to be here and express their
thoughts; even though it can be dif ficult, it’s their school, too. We all belong here.
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4 – Dismissiveness: I’m better than them. They’re diff erent and ann oying.
They don’t re ally belong. We shouldn’t trust them.
3 – Disdain: I’m doing as well as I can, while some others are responsible
for so many problems here. We’re the good people, and they’re the bad people. It’s
us versus them.
2 – Disgust: Some people here really disgust me. Things would be better if
they weren’t here. They ’re going to ruin everything if we let them. It’s us or them.
1 – Contempt: I hate some people in this school. They are terrible and are
destroying it here. They need to go. They are not valuable humans. If we don’t hurt
them first, they will hurt us.
If your classroom or school does not feel comfortable, it’s likely that your
ratings would be between 1 and 4. This implies that people are not listening to or
talking patiently and caringly to one another. The developers of the index make the
following suggestions to move up the D ignity Inde x.
Improving Your Dignity Index
Guide people to use more dignity and less contempt in what they read, what
they say, what they watch, and what they support.
Encourage people to expect the use of dignity from the people who represent
them, entertain them , and inform them. This is how the culture can start to change.
There are two important pa rts to this suggestion. First, each of us in schools
– and each of our students, especially starting at the secondary level – needs to
adopt attitudes toward others that are characterized by more respect, curiosity,
connectedness, and dignity. Second, we need to expect that those with whom we
interact – as political leaders, entertainers and sports figures, and sources of our
news and information – are not exemplars of dismissiveness, disdain, disgust, or
contempt fo r others, gene rally or for particular groups.
Put the Dignity Index to Work in your Classroom
One activity is to take the eight words in the Salt Lake City version and
present them to groups of students in mixed order and ask them to put them on a
continuum, explaining t he meaning of each word and why they creat ed the order
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that they did. Have groups present their orders and discuss differences. You can
have them create a composite version to use in your classroom/school. You also
can present the Salt Lake City version and have them reflect on similarities and
differences and/or use that version as a model to create a final version.
Social and emotional learning skills underlie the need to treat others with
dignity, and they are activated in the process of having genuine conversation.
Through conversations, we can help students build active listening skills, learn
how to respectfully disagree with others, strengthen peer relationships, and support
dignity. By creating our classrooms as safe, supportive spaces for critical and
creative thinking and guiding students in how they talk to each other, we can
improve the ir listening, learning, and character [7].
While summarizing a complex article or text decide on the correct
logical steps to follow. Look them through and check if they are given
in proper order.
1 Preview the article, skimming headings and first sentences; clarify any
difficult te rms with a dictionary or glossary.
2 State the thesis (main idea) of the article in one sentence.
3 Read the article at least twice.
4 Isolate each important point as it occurs in the article and write it down in
a complete sentence.
5 Read the opening and closing paragraphs.
6 Note how ideas are related to each other – comparison/contrast, cause-
effect relationships, problem-solution patterns.
7 Write your summary by reconstructing the author's argument from your
list of importa nt ideas
8 Check you have transitional phrases (like nevertheless, however, in
contrast) t o draw attention to the relationships among ideas.
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2.2 Summarizing a research work
Working with scientific articles or research works one should take
care to differentiate between types of compressed texts that give
condensed information a bout their content. First of all, we shoul d
feel the difference between an executive summary and an abstract.
An ex ecutive summary is a thorough overview of a research report or other
type of document that synthesizes key points for its readers, saving them time and
preparing them to understand the study's overall content. It is a separate, standalone document of sufficient detail and clarity to ensure that the reader can
completely understand the contents of the main research study. An executive
summary can be of a particular length depending on the length of the report, or it
can be the summary of more than one document (e.g., papers submitted for a group
project).
As for an abstract, we should mention there exist a lot of terms with a
slight difference in mea ning, nea r ly syno ny mous, e.g. annotation,
summary, thesis. In this textbook we’ll use abstract througho ut the te xt.
A well-written abstract is an essential element of a research work, as it gives
an idea of the content of the work and determines interest in it when someone
wants to get to know about it in advance. In addition, abstracts increase the
likelihood of references to the content of the paper, thereby affecting the author's
citation index. To the design of the abstract to the diploma should be taken
seriously and in advance to familiarise themselves with all the nuances of its
composition.
Writing an abstract shou ld be given considerable attention.
The abstract is a brief characterisation of the work, containing a list of the
main issues addressed in the work. The abstract notes the features and merits of the
work, which helps the reader to understand wh ether it is worth getting a cquainted
with it in more detail.
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As a rule, the abstract in the diploma should be inserted before the title page
or immediately after it. Thus, the abstract in the diploma is not numbered, since it
is not included in the content of the work.
Before the inclusion of the abstract in the final work it must be necessarily
checked by the scientific supervisor or the head of the department. Without their
approval, it is not recommended to put the abstract in the thesis to avoid questions
from the com mittee.
An abstract for the thesis may be required by the student in the future when
writing a CV to find a job. A short abstract of the thesis project with the indication
of the supervisor (including all his/her regalia) is aimed at attracting the interest of
the future employer. Specifying only the topic of the thesis project is not enough
for this purpose. High applied value of the thesis with a significant fundamental
contribution will create a positive impression on the employer about a young but
competent s pecialist who can be employed even without work experience.
How to write an abstract to your final research work
The main purpose of the abstract is to briefly outline a large volume of
final research (qualifying) work. The main requirements of the abstract include the
following:
Informativeness and reliability. The abstract should reflect the main content
of the diploma and the confirmed research results, as well as their applied
significance.
Literacy. The abstract should be written in Russian or English in accordance
with all lexical and grammatical rules.
Consistency. The abstract should contain a clear structure of the presentation
of the mater ial in accordance with the u niversity regulations.
Compactness. The volume of the short abstract for the final research
(qualifying) work should not exceed 200-250 words, and in the extended version
there should be no more tha n 850 words.
Style. It is forbidden to use a conversational style. The abstract for the thesis
should be wr itten strictly in a scienti fic style.
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Before writing an abstract for a final research work, it is necessary to
determine the keywords. The keywords in the abstract are very important. Their
correct selection can greatly facilitate the job search by readers of the target group.
Therefore, it is recommended to look at which keywords are used in scientific
research close to the topic of the diploma. The keywords must be repeated in the
text itself and in its title.
An abstract in the most concise form should include (picture 15):
• some general information;
• the main purpose and content of the study;
• a brief form ulation of the research method used;
• the most common results;
• conclusions from the study and recommendations.
Picture 15 – Content of an abstract
Check yours elf. Be sure you answer the f ollowing questions:
work?
supervisor before incl uding it in the f inal work?
1 What is the purpose of an executive summary in a research report?
2 How does an abstract differ from an executive summary?
3 Why is it important to carefully design and write an abstract for a research
4 Where should the abstrac t be inserted in a diploma or thesis project?
5 Why is it necessary to have the abstract checked by the scientific
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6 How can an abstract for a thesis project benefit a student when seeking
employment?
7 What are the main requirements for writing an abstract for a final research
(qualifying) work?
Exercise 1. Read the abstracts given below. Find all the parts in their content
according to the general scheme (picture 14).
A) The research is devoted to the study and analysis of linguistic and
stylistic ways of representing the images of characters in the novel by the modern
British writer J. Worth's “Call the Midwife”. The paper explores the theoretical
positions of the characte r 's image and the means of i ts representation in fiction.
In the first chapter – “Theoretical foundations of ways to create a character
image”, the concepts of character, image, artistic image, character image and
character system are defined, as well as various classifications of techniques and
means of creating a character image and their definitions are given.
The second chapter – “Linguist ic stylistic ways of representi ng the images of
characters in Jennifer Worth's novel “Call the Midwife” describes linguistic
stylistic techniques and means by which the images of the main character and
minor chara cters in the novel “Call the Midwife” are created.
The final qualifying work contai ns 44 pa g es.
B) Virtual reality in language learning: a systematic review and
implicatio ns fo r rese arc h an d practice
Antigoni Parmaxi
The increasing popularity of Virtual Reality (VR) has provoked scholars’
and educators’ interest to explore its potential as a learning environment for
various fields of education. Along this line, several literature reviews have
analysed and synthesised the educational use of VR; however, scholar activity is
lacking a recent review of VR on a specific field of interest such as language
learning. Thus this paper delineates the contour of scholarly literature on VR as an
emerging technology in language teaching and learning. Using 17 high-impact
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journals and conferences in the fields of Computer-Assisted Language Learning
and Educational Technology as a source, 26 scholarly manuscripts were retrieved
from 2015 to 2018, analysed and synthesised under the following foci: (a)
technologi es us ed, la nguage learning sett i ng s and du rat i on of edu c at ional activities;
(b) benefits and limitations from using VR as an educational tool in the language
classroom; (c) future research directions regarding the educational use of VR ba sed
on the reviewed literature. This paper argues that VR is an invaluable tool in the
language classrooms but entails challenges regarding its technical configuration, as
well as its pedagogical grounding. The study concludes with some discussion and
implications for resear chers and prac titioners [8].
When writi ng a summary / abstract of final research work (diploma) in
English, it is wort h us ing patterns charact eristic of this genre, wh ich ar e
ready-made used as an easily reproducible standard in certain conditions and
contexts.
There is a well-formed set of speech patterns. For example, for an Englishlanguage summary, the following patterns can be used, which are suitable for
research in any field:
General characteristics of the piece of writing: in t he work
(article) under discussion (consideration), it is intended (goals)
to describe (explain, study, survey) ...
Tasks set by the author: the author highlights (highlights, comments,
analyses)...
The structure of the text can be described as follows: the structure of this
document is as follows. The first part examines/describes/clarifies/outlines... Part 2
(Section 2) examines/expands/shows that /asserts that… In the final part, it is
proposed /sum marized /descri be d in det ai l. . .
Research methodology: The resulting structures have been investigated in
order to... / Samples were prepared for .../ A new model was built using ... / The
effect of ... it was investigated with the help of... / The data obtained were
evaluated using ... / A new a pproach was used for the study…
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Analysis: The results obtained confirm (lead to, show) ... / This study
showed that... / Significant information has been received regarding… / The
algorithm presented he re ensures that…
The work consists of an introduction, 2 chapters, a conclusion, and a list of
references.
2.3 Summ ary language focus
A distinctive feature of academic writing style is choosing the more formal
alternativ e when selecting a verb, noun, or other part of speech.
There are two variants of expressing an action or occurrence in the English
language. The choice is often between a phrasal verb and a single verb. For
summary writing style the preferred choice is a sing le verb wherever possible.
Researche rs looked at the way these texts are built up.
Researche rs observed the way these texts are organized.
Exercise 1. Choose the verb from the picture that reduces the
informality of each sentence. Note that you may need to add tense to
the verb from pictu re 15.
Picture 15 – Verbs for reduc ing informality
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1 Expert Syste m can help out the user in the diagnosis of problems.
2. This problem was set up to improve access to medica l c are.
3 Research expenditures have gone up to nearly $350 million.
4 The use of optic al characte r readers should cut down the number of
problems with the US mail service.
5 Resea rch er s ha ve fou nd ou t that drug has serious side effects.
6 Building a nuclear power plant will not get rid of the energy problem
completely.
7 Researchers have b een looking into this proble m for 15 years now.
8 This issue was brought up during the investigation.
9 Engineers c an come up with better designs using CAD.
10 The emission levels have been going up and down.
Exercise 2. Reduce the informality of each sentence by substituting a
single verb for the one in italics.
1 The implementation of computer-integrated-intellect has brought
some serious ethic problems. 2 The process should be done over until the desired
results are achieved. 3 Plans are being made to come up with a database containing
detailed information of the phenomena. 4 Subtle changes in the earth’s crust were
picked up by these new devices. 5 Proposals to construct new nuclear reactors have
met with great resistance from environmentalists.
Exercise 3. Which of the underlined words would be more suitable for
summary writing style? For the last four sentences supply a more
formal word or phrase in each sentence.
1 The government has made good / considerable progress in solving these
problems. 2 We got / obtained encouraging results. 3 The results of a lot of
numerous different projects have been pretty good / encouraging. 4 A loss of jobs
is one of the things that will happen / consequences if the process id automated.
5 The reaction of the officials was sort of negative. 6. The economic outlook is
mighty nice. 7 T he future of Federal funding is up in the air.